ResearchOps Transformation Lead (Fixed Term Contract)

At Justworks, we believe the best decisions come from deep understanding. Our Research & Insights team is dedicated to uncovering what matters most to our customers and our market — and equipping our colleagues with the knowledge they need to act on it. But as our company evolves, so must the way we conduct research, develop strategy, and leverage insight. We're looking for a ResearchOps Transformation Lead who will help us transform that aspiration into reality across both functions.

This is a rare kind of role. You're comfortable in the strategic weeds of research methodology, and you thrive in architecting the systems, tools, and workflows that make research and strategic insight possible at scale. Perhaps you've built ResearchOps infrastructure before — and you know that the future isn't just about process documentation and vendor contracts. You approach every workflow with a clarifying question: what truly needs human judgment here, and what can be automated? The answer shapes everything — from how insights reach the people who need them, to how any Justworker can access what we know and act on it, to how we scale research and strategy from specialized practices into organization-wide capabilities.

You'll join us at a pivotal moment. We've refreshed our Research & Insights mission, deepened our partnerships with Corporate Strategy, Product, Design, Engineering, and Marketing, and committed to a bold new direction: evolving how we work, investing in Insights Fluency for Justworkers across the company, and building an operational foundation that can scale with us. You'll work with significant autonomy, set direction rather than just execute it, and partner closely with leadership to shape how insight and strategy drive decisions at Justworks for years to come.

• Lead research operations. Define the vision, roadmap, and OKRs for operations supporting Research & Insights — in close partnership with the Senior Director of Research & Insights. Identify where shared infrastructure creates the most leverage, where each function needs dedicated support, and translate it all into a sequenced, achievable operating plan you own end to end. Define and track operational metrics that demonstrate the impact and efficiency, and use that data to continuously improve.
• Automate everything that doesn't need a human. Bring a relentless automation mindset to the way research works at Justworks. Continuously ask: what in this workflow requires human expertise and judgment — and what doesn't? Design and build AI-powered agents, automations, and intelligent workflows that handle the rest: surfacing relevant prior research before a study begins, routing insights to the right stakeholders, synthesizing patterns across studies, scheduling and managing participants, distributing the drumbeat of insight across the organization. The goal is to free researchers and Justworkers to focus on the work that only humans can do.
• Transform our participant recruitment and customer access infrastructure. Design and scale a recruiting system that gives researchers — and Justworkers Who Do Research (JWDR) — reliable, ethical, and efficient access to current and target customers. Move us from ad hoc to repeatable, and from repeatable to self-service.
• Harness the time and expertise of our research and strategy community. The researchers and strategists are contributors to this work. You'll be responsible for defining how their expertise plugs in: identifying where their involvement creates the most leverage and building the coordination systems that make those contributions scalable.The goal is an ops practice that's owned and sustained by the whole community — not dependent on any one person.
• Define our research ethics, compliance, and data governance standards. Own the frameworks, consent workflows, and privacy practices that ensure all research conducted at Justworks — by any team — meets our standards for participant trust and data protection.

• Scale the infrastructure that connects every Justworker to insight and strategy. Build the systems that ensure the right insight reaches the right person at the right time — automatically. This includes the operational machinery behind our drumbeat of insight: the channels, automations, and workflows that distribute what we learn broadly and accessibly. But it goes beyond customer research. Partner with Corporate Strategy to ensure every Justworker has a clear, grounded understanding of where the company is headed and why — so that day-to-day decisions at every level are anchored in strategy, not just intuition. 
• Establish and govern our Research Knowledge Management system. Build and maintain a living repository that makes it easy for anyone to find what we know, accessing our intelligence from a variety of contexts. Define metadata frameworks and freshness policies that keep it trustworthy and useful over time.
• Build the operational backbone for our Insights Fluency program. Partner with our research team to develop the playbooks, tools, templates, and training infrastructure that empower Justworkers across the company to conduct research responsibly and effectively — helping us deliver on our vision that every team can be insights-driven.

As a Research & Strategy Operations Lead, how results are achieved is paramount for your success and ultimately results in our success as an organization. In this role, your foundational knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes are anchored in the following:

• Strategic and systems thinking — You see the whole picture. You can connect a participant recruiting pain point to a knowledge management gap to a missed business decision, and design a coherent operational response that addresses all three. You build for today and architect for scale.
• AI-forward — Your default question with any workflow is: what here genuinely requires human judgment, and what can be automated? You don't just use AI tools — you build with them, design systems around them, and look for every opportunity to replace manual work with intelligent automation so that people can spend their time on things that actually need them.
• Consultative — You take an approach that focuses on building relationships with others, understanding their problems, and developing solutions through open-ended questions and active listening. You don't impose systems — you design them with the people who'll use them.
• Autonomous and self-directed — You operate effectively with minimal oversight, proactively identifying what needs to happen next and making it happen. You're comfortable owning a strategy and being accountable for outcomes.
• Stakeholder influence — You build trust and alignment across Research, Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Compliance, and Procurement. You know how to make the case for investment in infrastructure, and you do it with data and story.
• Ethical practice — You bring care and rigor to questions of participant privacy, data governance, and research ethics. You understand that good operations protect people, not just processes.

In addition, all Justworkers focus on aligning their behaviors to our core values known as COGIS. It stands for:

• Camaraderie — Day to day you can be seen working together toward a higher purpose. You like to have fun. You're an active listener, treat people respectfully, and have a strong desire to know and help others.
• Openness — Your default is to be open. You're willing to share information, understand other perspectives, and consider new possibilities. You're curious, ask open questions, and are receptive to thoughts and feedback from others.
• Grit — You demonstrate grit by having the courage to commit and persevere. You're committed, earnest, and dive in to get the job done well with a positive attitude.
• Integrity — Simply put, do what you say and say what you'll do. You're honest and forthright, have a strong moral compass, and strive to match your words with your actions while leading by example.
• Simplicity — Be like Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

• Proven track record (6-8 years, with demonstrated experience at a staff or principal level) of building and scaling operational systems and governance structures
• Demonstrated experience applying AI tools and building AI-powered workflows — for knowledge retrieval, research synthesis, automation, or insight distribution
• Experience working in a technology environment, including a deep understanding of experience design, user research, and product development processes
• Exposure to research methods in UX, market research, design research, and/or strategic research, and an interest in going deeper
• Strong cross-functional partnership and lateral leadership skills, with experience working across Product, Design, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, and Procurement
• Track record of operating independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments — able to set direction, influence without authority, and drive outcomes without waiting to be told what to do
• Experience with research and insight management platforms such as Great Question, Qualtrics, Dovetail, User Interviews, dscout, and Figma
• Background in compliance-sensitive environments (e.g., fintech, SaaS, enterprise B2B) is a strong plus

The target daily rate range for this contract engagement is $850 - $1,250. Please note that as a contractor, this role is not eligible for Justworks employee benefits including health insurance, paid leave, or 401(k).

This is a contract engagement with the potential to convert to a permanent role. We're building something meaningful here — and we're looking for someone who wants to grow with us.

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